According to Nikkei Daily, chip maker Infineon’s factory in Kulim, Malaysia has officially been put into operation, which means that Malaysia has achieved a major victory in its efforts to move upstream of the global semiconductor supply chain.
Infineon’s Kurin factory in Malaysia.
Photo source: Infineon, Infineon is focusing on the needs of renewable energy and electrification applications such as electric vehicles and artificial intelligence data centers.
The company said that the Gulin plant plans to operate at full capacity within the next five years and will become the world’s largest silicon carbide plant.
, Malaysia is not only Infineon’s largest chip production base in Asia, but also the world’s largest chip packaging and assembly business.
Ng Kok Tiong, senior vice president and managing director of Infineon’s Gulin business, said that Infineon has approximately 15,000 employees in Malaysia, more than other business locations, including its headquarters in Germany.
As a market leader in power supply and microcontroller chips, Infineon is investing in multiple types of wide-bandgap semiconductors, including semiconductors based on silicon carbide and gallium nitride.
In contrast, wide-gap semiconductors have higher temperature and voltage tolerances than chips made from ordinary silicon wafers.
Silicon carbide chips are critical for applications such as high-power electric vehicle charging solutions and renewable energy infrastructure, while energy-intensive gallium nitride chips can be used to make smaller chargers and adapters.
, Raj Kumar, senior vice president of technology and research and development at Infineon Gulin, told the media,”Compared to silicon-based power solutions, using silicon carbide, we can double the power density at the same size, or we can reduce the size in half at the same power.
“, In fiscal year 2024 (ending in September this year), Infineon expects revenue from silicon carbide-related solutions to be at least 600 million euros (approximately US$656 million).
The company has said that it will invest an additional 5 billion euros in the second phase of the Gulin plant and has already received an advance payment of 1 billion euros and approximately 5 billion euros in customer orders.
The growing demand for energy efficiency and higher power output is driving demand for wide-bandgap semiconductor devices in various fields such as electric vehicles, 5G infrastructure and power converters.
Research firm Gartner said that by 2028, the wide-band market is expected to reach US$13 billion, with a compound annual growth rate of 29.
9% from 2023 to 2028.
However, industry executives say silicon carbide chips used in power solutions are still three to four times more expensive than silicon-based solutions.
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